Hey Judy Rebick & Krystalline Kraus- What’s Going On?

As Ghandi once said:“First they laugh at you, Then they fight you, Then you win.” I’d have to add something in-between the ‘fight’ and the ‘win’ moments- “then they expose themselves.”And, it looks like we are right at that point.

Judy Rebick with some girl I'd like to meet!

It all began with my appearing at Occupy Toronto, about 15 minutes after I arrived at the Action Committee meeting. Wilsun Tsu flashed his Blackberry towards Dave Vasey, and the look on his face was one I’ll not forget for a long time. This was the moment when I was pretty certain that the conspiracy theorists were right- Occupy is an ‘Inside Job’. Or, at least, people are participating at Occupy without full disclosure…

I’ll get to the details more over the next couple of days. But, first, I need to share with you some of today’s latest news- because, for the umpteenth time over the past 48 hours, the people who are trying to hijack Occupy Toronto have exposed themselves. And, this one is as juicy as débutante ball in Central Florida!

I didn’t pay much attention to her though- just made sure I knew to watch out for her, and anyone else at Rabble.ca. Curiously, at right around the same time I noticed that Judy Rebick started following me on Twitter! At the time, I had no idea that Judy was the leader of Rable, but I did know that she has publicly spoken out against the Black Bloc. So, I thought I’d try asking her for some help.

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Curiously, Judy made no attempt to question my thoughts about the Council of Canadians– that was strange! I’m not certain about their involvement, but do know they have refused to provide help. Judy’s answer was puzzling- does she not read the news?

So, I took another shot at explaining to Judy what happened. After all, she has spoken out against the Black Bloc, and she started following me on Twitter- wouldn’t she be interested to see justice?

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Okay, that should get her attention! Now that I’ve told her Ian Hanomansing has been on the case she’s certain to respond!

What? Wake-up lady! What sort of intrepid Black Bloc ninja hunter are you? Didn’t you hear that HandsomeMan-ing is on the case? One more try…

At this point I went to bed, hoping to wake-up with news that Judy would be in the mood to help save our movement.

Say What? Did I sleep to long and it is April 1st? Haven’t you heard that Macdonald Stainsby, a man who writes for Rabble.ca is rumoured (in two separate places) to be the person who threw the pie at Eby after the Olympics? So, I was disappointed once more- but, equally curious why Judy wouldn’t care about such an important issue…

Perhaps I should have said “Decolonize”?

These days, I have more interesting stories flying at me than I can shake a stick at. There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to keep up with them. One particularly fascinating story I’m working on about Occupy Toronto brings-back a feeling of deja vous from a pivital incident at Occupy Vancouver. Both camps had incidents with Sacred Fires! And, curiously, they both included First Nations people with connections to David Eby, Harsha Walia, and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside!

While researching this story, I came across a few examples of Krystalline Kraus slandering men in a very similar way to how I was slandered in Vancouver. Deja vous squared! Take a look at this piece of Krystalline’s writing:

Wow!This is worse than the slander that was thrown at me! I checked with a couple of people who have connections to Harrison and, apparently, he isn’t quite the monster Krystalline makes him out to be. It seems like there is an agenda here…

Then, this morning, a friend and ally sends me this screenshot:

Yet again, wow! Not only is Rob Chamberland (the president of a local CUPE chapter) trying to take me down, but it appears he is now cooperating with Krystalline! It appears that I have some powerful enemies! What could be so important that all of these people would risk compromising themselves to restrict my access to Occupy Toronto? Am I right about the connection to George Szoros and the TIDES Foundation?

So, I have a question for you both, Judy Rebick & Krystalline Kraus- what the hell is going on here?

Krystalline Kraus has made it a point to make highly slanderous and defamatory accusations against me in the past, saying that i am both a sexist AND a racist, although when asked what she attributes this to, she was not able to produce even one letter of the alphabet as a means of offering proof. Then, when others came to my defense, she as quickly attacked them, making the same baseless accusations. She claims to be native and supports native rights, I do agree the she does support native rights , however, to quote a wonderful ally here , ( name with held as I do not have permission from the person to use name)” … Krystalline Kraus is as native to Canada as my Irish grandmother … ” ….. Krystalline Kraus hails from NORWAY . However, if you do speak with her, please avoid using big and intellectual sounding words, she does not understand them.

Upon re=reading your question and re-reading the note from krauss, the Harrison I know is nothing like that. Yes, he can get aggressive but I have never heard of him beating up anyone or using people for his own agendas.

Okay perfect, thanks! So, that considered, combined with input I’ve had from others, Rabble.ca has some explaining to do.

I see three key issues that need to be addressed:

1) Is there not a conflict of interest demonstrated having Krystalline, an occupier, also reporting for Rabble.ca on the Occupy movement? And, are there similar conflicts with other reporters/situations.

2) Do Krystalline’s online attacks and bullying conflict with Rabble.ca’s code of conduct? If not, does the code need updating?

3) In order to avoid having to press charges for this behaviour, what does Rabble.ca recommend for alternative resolution?

4) Is there truth to the allegation that Rabble.ca writer Macdonald Stainsby was the person who threw the pie at David Eby? Was this theatre to help Eby with public relations, or was this a genuine attack?

It is my sincere wish that we can settle this together, without the involvement of outside authorities. That said, considering the damage that has been done to me and to others, I cannot rule that out at this time.

Judy, I approached you last month with all sincerity- hoping your activist soul could see how I was in need of your help. As an influential member of our community, you have the influence necessary to fix the damage that has been done to people’s lives. Considering that two of the people who caused this damage are closely connected to Rabble.ca, I hope you will have the goodness in your heart to assist in making things right.

It seems that Krystalline continues to try and do damage to me- this is bizarre considering we haven’t met each other. You really need to stop this behavior- and, if I am asked to be removed from OT, you should go with me. Dontcha think?

What I don’t understand is what the hell she is saying about my being “banned from organizing with OCAP, NoII, AIM and Red Power United.” This is a pure slanderous lie- I have never approached any of these groups, so don’t know what she is talking about. In fact, I have a rule I have given myself, I won’t take a role organizing any group while I am with Occupy. This would be a conflict of interest in my POV (not that I have objections if others do so, though it would be nice if we were transparent about such things.)

And, yes, I did some light research- asked three people who had met the guy. They all had a different POV- but, regardless, had KK read what I wrote, she would notice that had not made judgement! Oy Vei!

The good news is that it appears the people at Occupy Toronto are quite sensible, and realize a hateful attack when they see one. I love you all already!

This next one is posted with the permission of Wolf, who is the subject of it. Not only is it another example of a fabricated attack, but doesn’t say much for the writer’s skills…

She also had the gall to post that on rabble, which she has since removed.
But I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but seems to me that most of the people have been completely brainwashed into the Occupy cult phenomenen and really do believe her lies. Even when repeatedly asking her for evidence and her consistent failure to produce any, people are just eating her stories up. She does have a great imagination though, I’ll give her that.

I can’t believe I wasted my time reading this dribble. Harrison helcrow was abusing his spouse so she fled out of Ontario and the asshole creep followed her there. Everything I’ve seen from you on the Internet makes you look like a self absorbed asshole who has no clue how aggressive and dominating you appear, and that is jar from the internet. From the tactics you are employing you are either a cop trying to cause shit or someone who only received attention from your family when you got in trouble. If it’s the later I am sorry for that, but it feels you really should take some time and think about what YOU may be doing to be surrounded in so much negativity and controversy. Please, you need to calm the fuck down. I don’t even know you but just from reading your self serving garbage I wouldn’t organize with you either. Good luck.

As you may have noticed, sometimes when people come to my blog with hateful pottymouth words, I tend to promote my response to the front page. So, congratulations! You now have your 15 minutes of fame!

Your Humble Narrator,
-Greg

NOTE: Considering Tayor has come back and responded more politely, I have removed the posting that this article linked to. I look forward to an open and respectful dialogue in the future…

NOTE2: Taylor got nasty after I called-out Dave about his unfounded attack on me. And, Rob Chamberland started trying to use the Google cache of this article to hurt my reputation with occupiers. So I have reinstated the article…

Hello Taylor, i was contemplating the best reply i can offer for the thread in question and in particular, , your letter / note to Greg. i think Greg has provided an reply such that I need not add to it, as he is well enough spoken to articulate what he feels about it, but I will add only, with respects to that, I echo his sentiment.

What troubles me Taylor is that you, as one of the key organizers, key facilitators and yes, one of the leaders of occupy Toronto, you took on many rolls, played many parts and were fairly visible throughout the park, and I add, that you and I had a few , albeit short , conversations that were productive. Productive save for certain areas that you indeed were quite resistant to change. for example, this issue of the ongoing and out of control drug and alcohol use, the repeated sexual assaults on our female companions and friends, the hourly fights, , the out of control theft problem, most of which was caused by those, invited, welcomed with open arms , embraced and pampered … BY YOU AND the rest of the organizers and facilitators. in fact Taylor, you yourself told me on more than one occasion , after i made many complaints of the out of control actions in the park, that we had to welcome them because this park was a safe haven for them from the cops and they are also part of the 99%. this was repeated ad nauseum by anyone and everyone who was a leader, facilitator and organizer. So, after this was brought clearly and repeatedly to your attention, what was done ? NOTHING but further condonation of these activities. You 9 collectively allowed, welcomed and condoned all of these acts of oppression .

Now, you , and others come on here and try to suggest that persons like Greg, Suzy, Lawrence Celina to name a few ( being mindful that YOU did not mentioned names other than Greg, but others clearly have ) are oppressing others and why, because we have asked questions, questions that you all clearly do not want to answer , questions that would clearly prove how corrupt occupy was and continues to be. if occupy was premised on the idea of total transparency, occupy and its leaders and facilitators have clearly, deliberately and methodically failed and further, outright LIED to the people who gave everything they had to be a part of this movement. you ( collectively ) sold occupy out to the highest bidder, the unions and failed us by failing to live up to the intended mandate of occupy. Again, when questions were raised, you ( collectively resorted to your old tricks , that of attacking, misleading, lying about defaming, slandering those who wanted answers that you clearly were fearful of answering. Taylor, we have the lies recorded straight for the proverbial horses mouth.

Having said all that , let me say also that my commitment to occupy in what ever form and shape it it to evolve into is as strong as ever. Occupy made mistakes the first time around but we have a very rarely given chance to get it right the second time around, but in order for that to be accomplished , the leadership needs to either change, go , or admit to making mistakes and this time, do what they say will be done. Taylor, you are a smart and intelligent young lady and I know you can see what we am saying to be correct . don’t fal into the trap of following for the sale of following to be cool and accepted because Taylor, at the end of the day, you KNOW the truth will come out, and where you position yourself now is the legacy that will forever define you as an activist , or a blind follower of lies and deceipt. Greg is not a cop, I am not a cop, neither are any of those who have been slandered and defamed, cops. what we do have, are the fact based, proven, answers to the questions you don’t want to hear .

for the record, there is nothing i am hiding from you or the rest of the curious latecomers.. i was one of the first to ask all people to consider enforcing a no drugs or alcohol policy, for taking on police liaison and other leadership roles, encouraging a rotation and fair distribution of power…. i asked everyone to step up and step back…every dollar i held in trust for occupy is present and accounted for (ask any one on or near the finance committee, and your welcome for starting the credit union account with 4 fair signatories.. do you have any idea how hard that was?) so please just relax when you come around later asking where the money went….having no idea what it took to run an occupy camp…. while being yelled at and abused by stressed out personalities, awoken in the night to come solve other peoples problems.. we had generators and gas and medic supplies, fire wood, as well as batteries and emergency logistics. running the occupy camp for 40 days and 40 nights was not, in the end cheap, and the unions are seeing that now too. (thanks to them again for maintaining sanitation) but who are you to come around demanding accountability? where is your accountability,, to who? thats again, my problem with the internet. my point about the cop thing is it is as disruptive and divisive as if you WERE a cop. we need to let that go. those most effected by whats going on right now (in canada and abroad), those are the people i am interested in listening to. taking direction from…. who knows better than the communities who have been fighting these austerity measures for way longer than you or i. its time to humble up.. this thing is bigger than you or me. 500 years going on.. we are just feeling it now.

I appreciate the less harsh tone you have taken in this response. Had you approached that way in the first place, it would have been a lot nicer I have to say. I found your rush to make a character judgement on someone you’ve never met quite disturbing. It was unnecessary for you to write to me that way- and, to be honest, rather rude.

It appears you have done some good things in your life, so people seem to have filtered out the issue that you came to me this way. It is curious how a cult of personality can be- but I’m sure that after all of your years of activism you’ve seen this in others…

I’ll not comment on the specifics of what happened at the camp here in Toronto. But, from my experience in Vancouver, and from stories I’ve heard from people at other occupations, I can see what Undercoverkitty is saying. Occupiers tend to be people who came to the movement for love, and this weakness was exploited by many. Often it wasn’t until it was too late that occupations took action.

Like you, I was one of the first people to try and introduce a no drugs & alcohol policy. In my case, it was after our first overdose at Occupy Vancouver. I’m not sure what your experience was like, but I was called divisive for my suggestion…

The next day, when the Fire Chief came and told us to remove to the tarps we had over the tents I told him this could result in a death- but he ignored me. I then told the mayor we were at risk of a death- he didn’t want to get involved either. So I went to the Insite clinic, who after 4 hours of phone calls, agreed to send a nurse for outreach. They came the next morning, dropped-off some supplies, but didn’t do the outreach as they promised to. A few hours later a young girl had died, it was heartbreaking to see that after all the effort I put into it. I wrote about it here:

I understand the cost of austerity measures, experienced the results first-hand when I lived in Russia during the early-mid 90’s. Shortly after I arrived there I saw the body of a 65 year-old woman on the sidewalk, went to the nearby police stations and dragged them over to her. The cop looked at me and said “Это жизнь!” (That’s life!) and he quickly walked away. The next day, I saw an old woman with a box of black, mouldy, tomatoes at a pedestrian underpass- she sat there for two days trying to sell them with no luck. The desperation from the currency collapse and resulting austerity measures caused a lot of pain there.

I lived in East Europe for over six years, and learned a thing or two about the challenges we may be facing soon. So, I know a thing or two about what to expect. And, to be honest, it disturbs me to hear your using other people’s pain to try and discredit Kitty’s opinion. That was a cheap shot, and you have no right to have done that- regardless of the accuracy of his/her statement. Disappointing…

Equally disappointing is your statement about divisiveness. Somehow, people at many occupations have decided that what is divisive to say about operations inside their camps is more important than behaviours that divide us from the rest of society. You may be surprised to hear this- but, often, when people in the occupy movement have spoken out about what can be improved, we have helped improve our image with the outside world.

People told me I was divisive when I wrote about Occupy Vancouver’s drug problem the day after our first overdose. But,it was exactly because I was so honest that I was able to rally support from members of the media and some influential community members outside of the camp. I was able to get them to make public statements after the death that the issue was “a Vancouver issue, not an Occupy Vancouver issue.”

So, Taylor I must say I’m not impressed with your tactics to take the upper-hand. The way you approached me with loathing and hateful language, and the way you deflected criticism from Kitty by calling him/her divisive, the way you used the pain of others to try and justify yourself- this is far from what I expected when I took comradeship with experienced activists like yourself. It lacks genuineness, respect and compassion that I thought would naturally come with the territory.

That said, you are not the only person to have acted this way- so, I’m guessing it takes a lot out of one’s heart to go down the path of a long-term activist. It seems many people in this community have a lot of pain and damage from this pursuit. Many hearts that have been broken and worn from the long fight. And, a slight bit of arrogance on the side.

Personally, I’m not that bitter yet- probably why I am resorting to using humour over using abusiveness and defensive tactics. But, to use the immortal words of Bill Clinton- I feel your pain. So, apologies for reacting to your initial introduction, and I am removing the ‘pottymouth’ article. Hopefully you can see in your heart that you also should share some apologies for your angry introduction.

I hope, in return, you will do your best to ‘call-off the dogs’ in the attack on me. I entered Occupy Toronto with peace & love in my heart- and never expressed any negativity. Then, for some reason, Dave went off the rails and decided to insist I am expelled without trial, and without understanding the situation. This sort of behaviour is incredibly more divisive than anything I’ve done.

You see, there are a few million people out there like me- newly hatched activists who are so disappointed in the system we once believed in that we decided to jump to the other side. This is the miracle of the Occupy Movement, that it has awakened the souls of the masses. People who never before considered dedicating their lives to making change, but are now committed to making it happen.

The strange thing about the money situation is this (this can be found throughout the writings on the facebook page) Some of the finance members and key players claimed that they hardly had to spend any money because they were recieving so many donations. The accounts of how much money and what that money was spent on were so widely varried and none of you were smart enough to get together and at least come up with a cohesive statement. Am I wrong in believing that you were a part of Antoine’s theft of money for “locks” etc? And speaking upon Antion, why all the hate on for all these other people when you have an admitted thief and an alleged sexual assaulter within your midst who is welcomed? If transparancey had been upheld at the very start, there would not have been any tension at all. But it wasn’t instead things were hidden and countless of stories were told. To this day there has still not been a full account of ALL the money that was donated and what it was spent on and how much is actually there. I would also like to point out that when the money was/is spent it is not done through a consensus at the GA. there is no horizontal democracy only a shoddy facade.

Once again, I’ll refrain from making comments about what happened at OT. But, I do believe that the majority of issues to do with money are as a result of a lack of transparency. That said, it is chaotic setting-up such a large event like an occupation- particularly in a flat organization without any official leaders…

The only solution to clearing-up future issues with money will be to have 110% transparency. We need to regularly publish financial statements with all transactions fully detailed- preferably on a scheduled basis (once or twice a week). Without this, we will forever be lost in FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt.). I’ve seen too much damage to our movement from this issue- it should be a priority to get past it as soon as possible…